The Gilchrist Document is a much cited letter from 1965 often used to support arguments for Western involvement in the overthrow of

Sukarno Sukarno (6 June 1901 – 21 June 1970) was an Indonesian statesman, orator, revolutionary, and nationalist who was the first president of Indonesia, serving from 1945 to 1967. Sukarno was the leader of the Indonesian struggle for independenc ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. The document purports to be a letter from the British ambassador to Jakarta,

Andrew Gilchrist Sir Andrew Graham Gilchrist (19 April 1910 – 6 March 1993) was a British Special Operations Executive operative who later served as the United Kingdom's Ambassador to Ireland, Indonesia, and Iceland during the Cold War. Early career in Forei ...

, addressed to the

British Foreign Office The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is the ministry of foreign affairs and a ministerial department of the government of the United Kingdom. The office was created on 2 September 2020 through the merger of the Foreign an ...

. It refers to a joint US– UK plan for military intervention in Indonesia.Aandstad, Stig A: Surrendering to Symbols – US policy towards Indonesia 1961–65. Oslo, Norway. Cand.philol dissertation, University of Oslo, 1999.Gardner, Paul F. Shared Hopes, Separate Fears: Fifty Years of US–Indonesian Relations. Boulder, Colorado: Westview, 1997: pp. 205–6 The letter was first made public by the Indonesian Foreign Minister

Subandrio Subandrio (15 September 1914 – 3 July 2004) was an Indonesian politician Foreign Minister and First Deputy Prime Minister of Indonesia under President Sukarno. Removed from office following the failed 1965 coup, he spent 29 years in prison. ...

on a trip to

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

. The US embassy in Cairo was soon able to get a photographic copy of the letter. The embassy concluded that it was a fake, and the "Gilchrist letter" was subsequently referred to as a forgery in the US administration. An internal discussion in the US administration on who was behind the forgery followed, and the US settled on a Subandrio-controlled intelligence agency.Airgram A-32, Cairo to State, 10 July 1965 (photo of Gilchrist letter attached), Pol 23–9, "Indon, rebellion & coups", 1/1/65, Box 2317, NARA; Airgram A-35, Djakarta to State, July 28, 1965, National Archives – College Park, Maryland, US The Czechoslovak Intelligence agent

Ladislav Bittman Lawrence Martin-Bittman (14 February 1931 – 18 September 2018), formerly known as Ladislav Bittman, was an American artist, author, and retired professor of disinformation at Boston University. He was best known for his 1983 book, '' The KGB an ...

, who defected in 1968, claimed that his agency forged the letter. Bittman also claimed responsibility for the campaign against US citizen and movie distributor Bill Palmer. The papers of the British ambassador Sir

are held in the Churchill Archive at

Churchill College Churchill College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. It has a primary focus on science, engineering and technology, but retains a strong interest in the arts ...

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. Some of them are still classified. Speculation about a possible British role in the overthrow of Sukarno continues. However, the British defence secretary in 1965, Denis Healey, stated in 2000 that Britain was not involved, though Healey would have supported involvement had it been possible.

Text

The following is the text of the document as reproduced in a semi-official collection of documents:Alex Dinuth "Dokumen Terpilih Sekitar G30S/PKI" (''Selected Documents Related to the G30S/PKI'') Intermasa, Jakarta 1997

I discussed with the American Ambassador the questions set out in your No.:67786/65. The Ambassador agreed in principal with our position but asked for time to investigate certain aspects of the matter. To my question on the possible influence of Bunker's visit, to Jakarta, the Ambassador state that he saw no reason for changing our joint plans. On the contrary, the visit of the US. President's personal envoy would give us more time to prepare the operation the utmost detail . The Ambassador felt that further measures were necessary to bring our efforts into closer alignment. In this connection, he said that it would be useful to impress again on our local army friends that extreme care discipline and coordination of action were essential for the success of our enterprise. I promised to take all necessary measures. I will report my own views personally in due course. GILCHRIST

References

{{reflist Transition to the New Order Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation 1965 documents Forgery controversies Czechoslovakia–Indonesia relations Czechoslovakia–United Kingdom relations Czechoslovakia–United States relations Indonesia–United Kingdom relations Indonesia–United States relations 1965 controversies Controversies in Indonesia